By some they’ve been fondly called the ‘nuns from Newport.’

For years, a group of women with clean-shaven heads wearing traditional Tibetan monastic red robes have been running a 240-acre abbey tucked in the woods just outside of Newport, Washington.

But it was never intended to be a women-only monastic training ground.

Over the past eight years, Sravasti Abbey has grown apace, ordaining six nuns, two monks and adding three previously ordained nuns to its community.

Most recently, Geshe Dadul Namgyal, an esteemed Buddhist scholar, joined the Abbey as the first male resident teacher. He joins abbess and founder Thubten Chodron and author Sangye Khadro as a senior teacher guiding and instructing the monastery’s now 20 monastics.

A ‘burgeoning’ community of monks

“After all these years of being mostly nuns, we now have a burgeoning community of men,” said Thubten Chonyi, a “bhikshuni” (fully ordained nun) who oversees publicity at the Abbey.

Thubten Losang became the first monk at Sravasti in 2015 after participating in a Sharing the Dharma Day there two years earlier. Then, in 2022 the Abbey ordained its second monk. 

Two more men — who are currently in “anagarika” training, the step before bhikshuni — are scheduled to take their novice ordination vows in May, bringing the Abbey’s monk population to five.

Namgyal, known as Geshe-la, who has been a monk in the Tibetan tradition for more than 40 years, will lead the growing monk community at Sravasti.

He chose to reside at Sravasti after recently retiring from Emory University’s Center for Contemplative Science and Compassion-based Ethics. For the past 13 years, he also served as senior resident teacher at Drepung Loseling Monastery in Atlanta and was senior translator/interpreter with the Emory-Tibet Science Initiative, where he helped develop a science curriculum for Tibetan monks and nuns.

Thubten Ngawang, who joined the Abbey as its second monk last year, said he was initially both surprised and grateful when he learned Geshe-la was joining Sravasti.

“And it’s an ongoing recognition, a continual acknowledgment, like wow, this is so precious,” Ngawang said.

Namgyal’s first visit to the abbey

Namgyal explained he first visited the Abbey in 2008 for a workshop and since then had been visiting annually.

Each time, the nuns invited him to stay.

“The doors of the Abbey have always been open to me,” he said. “The center has the most ideal conditions for individual growth as well as sharing with the world.”

He added that the Abbey being located in the U.S. was a big draw.

Sravasti Abbey is among the first Tibetan Buddhist monasteries for Western nuns and monks in the U.S.

“The sincerity of the practitioners, that is the most powerful,” he said. “It is evident that everyone here is aware of what they’re here for, to work on and improve their mental attitudes. Everybody seems to really embody and be trying their best in really walking the path. So, that was very evident. That was the most attractive thing.”

Ngawang’s draw to the abbey

Ngawang felt a similar pull to the Abbey.

He first visited in 2014.

“I was so inspired and impressed by the nuns, and there were only nuns (then),” he said.

He came originally to meet Chodron, whose book “Open Heart, Clear Mind” he said changed his life.

“I saw these women that were so well rounded, so balanced in their approach to life. It wasn’t just about spiritual development, but it was about, as venerable says often, about being a good human being,” Ngawang said, noting that their commitment to living a sustainable life also inspired him.

Ultimately, he moved from Atlanta to Spokane to be closer to Sravasti. COVID, he said, was the final push he needed to commit to monastic life.

“The Abbey was shutting down to people that were outside of the community,” he recalled. “At that point, I really had to make a decision. Do I want to be at the Abbey? Or do I want to be in Spokane disconnected from the Abbey?”

He moved to Sravasti in 2021 for anagarika training and was ordained as a novice monk seven months ago.

Still, the abbey needs more fully ordained monks

With only two fully ordained monks at the Abbey, there weren’t enough men for a Sangha. Without a Sangha, the monks haven’t been able to fully participate in monastic life. Sangha’s require four, fully-ordained monastics to do the three prescribed rites of a fully functioning monastic Sangha: bi-monthly confession and restoration of precepts, the rains retreat or varsa and the end-of-varsa request for feedback.

Chonyi explained that the abbey is able to do these because it has a full bhikshuni Sangha. 

“The monks join in ceremonies when it’s appropriate for them to do so, but until there are at least four who are fully ordained, they are not yet a fully functioning bhikshu Sangha,” she said.

“The Buddhist Sangha is divided by gender —, that’s how it is,” Ngawang explained. “There’s a bikshuni (nun) and a bikshu (monk) Sangha and those necessarily are separate for certain Vinaya (disciplinary code) rites.”

With a bikshu Sangha on the horizon, Ngawang said a path is opening for the abbey’s future.

“In order for men to have an equal opportunity — it sounds strange — but in order for the Abbey really to offer the full experience of Buddhist monastic life to both genders, then it’s necessary to have a Sangha,” he said. 

All genders welcome at the abbey

But Ngawang said Sravasti being a place for both monks and nuns sends a significant message to the lay community, too.

“I think for other men to see role models like Geshe Dadul (Namgyal) is really helpful to envision what you can become,” he said. “I’ve heard many, many women say that about Venerable Chodron and Khadro and the seniors, so I think there’s that piece of having men also on this path that other men can see as role models that is valuable.”

He added that having both Sanghas at the Abbey embodies the unity Chodron consistently speaks of.

“Chodron really emphasizes over and over again that harmony is foundational — we have to have harmony,” Ngawang said. “If we don’t have harmony in the community, there’s no reason for us to be here. What role models can we be if we can’t get along with each other? I think it’s really helpful to have this community be a place where gender issues can be discussed.”

The rarity of co-ed Tibetan Buddhist monasteries

But co-ed Tibetan Buddhist monasteries are rare, and it’s unfamiliar to the Abbey’s newest senior teacher.

He said so far the experience has been “wonderful.”

“I don’t take my resident teacher position so seriously,” he said. “I see myself learning and making myself available to share in the understanding. When you’re learning and sharing, it doesn’t feel like work.”

This summer Namgyal will lead three summer courses titled “Working with Afflictive Minds: The First Steps” to be held at Sravasti Abbey, 692 Country Lane in Newport, June 17, July 28-30 and Aug. 18-20. He will also lead the Abbey’s annual Labor Day weekend retreat in September.

Chonyi said even though Geshe-la has taken on a leadership position at the Abbey, and the monk community is growing, balance is — and will continue to be — key at Sravasti.

“Don’t think girl power is going anywhere,” she said.

Tracy Simmons is an award-winning journalist specializing in religion reporting and digital entrepreneurship. Simmons has worked as a multimedia journalist for newspapers across New Mexico, Texas and Connecticut. Currently, she teaches journalism at Washington State University and serves as the executive director of FāVS News, a digital journalism start-up covering religion news and commentary in Spokane, Washington. This article originally originally appeared at FāVS News.